Oliver Purnell

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Oliver Purnell (born 19 May 1953) is an American college basketball coach at Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina.

[edit] Early years

Purnell was born in Berlin Maryland, attending Stephen Decatur High School. Purnell was recruited to play basketball at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. While at Old Dominion, Purnell enjoyed a highly successful playing career, finishing 18th on ODU's all time scoring list with 1,090 points and leading the Monarchs to the 1975 NCAA Division II national championship.[1]. The Milwaukee Bucks drafted Purnell in the sixth round of the 1975 NBA Draft.[2]

[edit] Coaching career

Purnell became a graduate assistant coach at ODU in July 1975, eventually becoming a full time assistant at the university. During Purnell's tenure as a full time assistant, he helped ODU reach the post season seven times (3 NCAAs and 4 NITs).[3] Lefty Driesell hired Purnell in 1985 to serve as an assistant on his Maryland staff. Purnell served three seasons at Maryland before being selected as head coach at Radford University. Purnell is credited with one of the biggest one year turnarounds in NCAA history as his 1990-91 Radford club posted a 22-7 record, a 15 game improvement over the previous season.[4]. In 1994, he accepted a position as head coach at the University of Dayton where he led the Flyers to multiple NCAA tournament appearances (2000,2003) before accepting the head coaching job at Clemson University shortly after losing to #13 Tulsa in the 2003 tournament.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Jim O'Brien		 Dayton Flyers
Head Coach
1994–2003		 Succeeded by
Brian Gregory
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